Posted on 10/09/2014 7:35:33 AM PDT by xzins
There has been mounting evidence in the last two weeks that the Internet, one of the last unregulated venues for communication, might well be headed for federal regulation.
What makes the specter of Internet regulation (or "net neutrality," as its proponents prefer to call it) all the more ominous is that it might become law through rulings by the Federal Communications Commission rather than a vote of elected representatives in Congress.
On Sept. 24, the Washington Post reported that the FCC was working with activists seeking to generate comments in favor of tough, 1930s-style regulation of telephone. In what the Post’s Nancy Scola dubbed "an unusual collaboration," supporters of net neutrality "were keeping up a round-the-clock watch of ECFS’s [Electronic Comment Filing System] health. Headquartered in Southwest Washington, D.C., the FCC’s technologists were doing the same.
By the time the September 15 deadline rolled around for public comments on "so-called net neutrality," Scola reported, 3.7 million comments had been recorded by the federal government, more than the FCC has gotten on any debate in its 80-year history."
Opponents of "so-called net neutrality" hit this hard.
"If the Post’s report is accurate," wrote Mike Wendy of MediaFreedom in an open letter to the FCC Inspector General, then his organization "believes this ‘unusual collaboration’ undermines the Commission’s open rulemaking process, revealing in it a bias that defeats the needed reason and factual underpinning for a lawful rule to result."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Don’t be fooled. This isn’t really about ‘tax’ money from sales. It’s about the ruling elite wanting to shut up voices like FREE REPUBLIC by imposing some kind of ‘fairness doctrine’ that used to supposedly give equal voice to all sides during the days of Cronkites unfettered liberal indoctrination of the USA.
They will pivot from tax to speech control in such a short time it will make nanosecond cry for mercy.
Then FR will move servers overseas.
If you like your internet, you can keep your internet..........
“all the more ominous is that it might become law through rulings by the Federal Communications Commission rather than a vote of elected representatives in Congress.”
That’s called regulatory authority.
The FCC should not even exist.
95% of the FedGov shouldn’t even exist.
I agree.
Anyone who wants to start a paper, a broadcast, a website, etc., should be able under the 1st amendment to do exactly that.
there might be initial chaos on some bandwidths, but the free market will sort it out
For the last several generations the congress has abrogated its constitutional duties to make the laws by turning the 'dirty work' over to bureaucrats. Then the courts take these "Rules" and carve them in stone as laws. IOW the congress for all its pomp and bluster is worthless and nothing but an expensive appendage with free parking in the District of Columbia.
Well, it depends on the nature of the regulation.
“Fast lanes” should be regulated out. What, you think this site would survive that? Corporations should not be able to pick and choose. Trust me, they won’t pick us.
As I say, the problem isn’t Government, the problem is that it isn’t a Conservative government.
I didn’t follow your first 2 lines. Could you expand on them? I’m slow this morning...probably need another dose of caffeine. (Honest request. This is not a gotcha kind of thing. I don’t do that.)
Excellent post!
BTT
You think a silly thing like "borders" will stop them?
Think again:
US says it can hack into foreign-based servers without warrants
Soon there will be no hiding in yesterday ... because yesterday will be gone. The elites want this more than anything else and will eventually, if not sooner, to regulate Free Speech and Free Republic. The elites fear the Truth, as all here know. Don’t know when it will happen but is no longer a question of ‘if’. Kudos to all trying to get the truth out there from here at Free Republic! Special Kudos to Jim!
“fast lanes” is a slang term for a proposed two-tier internet - companies (think NetFlix, Amazon, etc.) could pay extra for faster speeds. Of course, it’s not really faster until they move the “slowpokes” out of the way, so they would throttle some folks (FR included, no doubt) to make room for the big boys.
thanks, izzy. makes sense now
You got that right!
But, but we have to have Net Neutrality or else ISPs will charge you to access FR!!!
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